Fossilized remains of a 365-million-year-old creature first discovered 14 years ago in Latvia help explain how fish evolved into four-legged animals, scientists say in an article published June 26 in the British journal Nature.

The article reports on a new reconstruction of Ventastega curonica, using recently found fossils of a skull, braincase, shoulder girdle and part of the pelvis. The first fossils of the creature, which date from the Late Devonian period, were found in 1994 in sandstone near Pavāri, east of Skrunda along the Ciecere River in Kurzeme.

Ventastega curonica, which lived about 100 million years before dinosaurs, was about 1.3 meters in length and looked something like an alligator, paleontologist Per E. Ahlberg of Sweden’s Uppsala University said in an Associated Press story. Although it would have spent much of its time in or near water, the creature probably had four flippers rather than fins, the scientists suggest.

The scientists used software to help model what Ventastega curonica may have looked like.

The creature, which differs from other finds from around the same period, shows the diversity of evolution from fish to four-legged animals.

Ventastega curonica may represent a transition between fish and four-legged animals, but itself was an “evolutionary dead-end,” according to Ahlberg.

The Nature article, “Ventastega curonica and the origin of tetrapod morphology,” was authored by Ahlberg and Henning Blom of Uppsala University in Sweden, Jennifer A. Clack of the University of Cambridge in Great Britain, Ervīns Lukševičs of the University of Latvia and Ivars Zupiņš of the Natural History Museum of Latvia.

Latvia’s foreign ministry has condemned the actions of right-wing Russian nationalists who poured red liquid on Ambassador Andris Teikmanis during a June 25 press conference in Moscow.

The Latvian Embassy in Moscow has sent a note to Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs asking that it be informed about progress in investigating the incident and punishing the perpetrators, the Latvian foreign ministry announced in a press release.

A man and a woman assaulted the ambassador just as a press conference was starting in the RIA Novosti center in Moscow, according to media reports. They shouted support for Vladimir Linderman, a National Bolshevist leader who remains in Latvian custody. Linderman, also known as Vladimir Abel, is accused of possessing explosives and plotting the assassination of former President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga.

Linderman was extradited from Russia in March.

The Web site of Russia’s National Bolshevik Party, nazbol.ru, carried a press release stating that Xenia Firsov and Sergey Baranov carried out the assault on Teikmanis. They demand that Linderman be released, that Latvia end attempts to revise history by discrediting the sacrifices of Soviet soldiers during World War II, and that Latvia end discrimination against its Russian-speaking minority.

Although Līgo vakars and Jāņu diena, or June 23 and 24, together make up the biggest holiday in the homeland, Latvians abroad this year in many cases will be celebrating the Midsummer festival during the weekend of June 21-22.

For those in Latvia, the Midsummer celebration is a state holiday, but for those living abroad there’s no such luck. Across Europe and North America, in Australia and even in a few spots in Asia, organized celebrations are planned June 21 or later, but in a few cases already have occurred.

At a minimum, the celebrations will feature singing, eating of the the caraway seed-infused Jāņu siers (Midsummer cheese) and drinking of beer. Bonfires will be the focal point of rural celebrations. Several communities have invited performers from Latvia to their Jāņi celebrations. Organizers at Priedaine in New Jersey, for example, snagged popular singer Ance Krauze, while the celebration at Ireland’s Rathbeggan Lakes will include the band Kreicbergas ziķeri.

Embassy staff in Beijing, China, and in Tokyo, Japan, closed out the work week by inviting the local Latvian community and other diplomats to celebrations in those cities on June 20.

Latvians in Australia are celebrating in Perth, Brisbane and other locations.

Germany ranks No. 1 when it comes to Jāņi celebrations this year compared to the number of Latvians who live there. At least half a dozen celebrations are on the calendar, according to reports gathered by Latvians Online and posted in a special calendar section.

Celebrations also are planned, or have already occurred, in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Ukraine. At least two celebrations also are set for Latvians living in Moscow, Russia.

Perhaps the most exotic Jāņi celebration is in the country of Georgia, where the local Latvian community this year is heading on a June 22 excursion into the Caucusus mountains.

Two celebrations are planned in Ireland, where tens of thousands of Latvians have moved in recent years in search of work. One celebration is June 21 near Dublin, the other June 23 near Limerick. Several celebrations also are scheduled in the United Kingdom.

In Canada, Latvians are celebrating June 21 at Tērvete, a camp in Québec, and at Ontario’s Camp Sidrabene. Līgo vakars, however, will not be ignored, as the Latvian Canadian Culture Centre hosts a celebration June 23.

And across the United States, Jāņi celebrations are planned from coast to coast. In the eastern U.S., Latvians will gather at Piesaule in New Hampshire, the Latvian Lutheran Camp in New York’s Catskill Mountains, Priedaine in New Jersey and at a private property not far from Washington, D.C.

In the Midwest, celebrations are scheduled near Ohio’s Cleveland, at the Latvian Center Gaŗezers in Michigan, and in Wisconsin, where Latvians will gather and no doubt travel between Dievsēta near Warrens and the Tupesis property, about a 30-minute drive to the south. Latvians in Indianapolis will join other ethnic groups in a June 28 Midsummer celebration at the Latvian Community Center.

In the western U.S., celebrations are scheduled in Colorado, Washington and California, where the holiday will be marked in San Francisco and near Los Angeles.